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CHAPTER III
FROM MEDICINA CLERICA TO
PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
THE question of the relationship between religion and
medicine is not new. Terms to denote it have been in existence
for a very long time. The expressions ‘medicina clerica’ and
‘pastoral medicine’ have both been used. Little has been heard
of this subject, however, during recent years. Indeed, although
pastoral medicine has sought recognition it has never become
an acceptable subject in the field of practical theology, for
several reasons. It has been found very difficult to define the
proper contents and limits of this branch of study in relation to
other subjects that encroach on it. Moreover, the term itself is
apt to arouse misgivings lest it encourage the attempt to break
down, perhaps with unforeseeable consequences, barriers
between realms of thought and action that should be distinct.
Both physicians and spiritual advisers interested in pastoral
medicine share this hesitation.
About a hundred years ago the situation was otherwise.
Then, several books on the subject were published, among
them one written by a German physician, de Valenti, and
entitled, Medicina Clerica.r De Valenti, who was evidently a
contentious man, desired to see the new subject occupying a
free and independent position as a branch of learning, and, with
typical German thoroughness, set out to define it as exhaustively
as possible. In summary, his idea was that the province of
pastoral medicine is to describe the internal relations between
medicine and theology, the extent to which the minister of
religion and the doctor of medicine should be able to help each
other in dealing with the illnesses and disorders of mankind,
and the conditions or rules of professional etiquette, under
which this co-operation should be given.
1 Leipzig, 1831.
34
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